


Intangible Losses During the Hundred Years War: A Brief Historical Review

by uniqueafternoon



Series: The Avatar World: An Academic View [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Academic, Gen, Historical Review, History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27914761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uniqueafternoon/pseuds/uniqueafternoon
Summary: Working Paper No. 73 of New Zaofu University, Department of Nations and Cultures, authored by Shichi Beifong.What else was lost during the Hundred Years War?
Series: The Avatar World: An Academic View [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044060
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Intangible Losses During the Hundred Years War: A Brief Historical Review

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Overheard in Ba Sing Se](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17121602) by [cloudymagnolia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudymagnolia/pseuds/cloudymagnolia). 



Much work has been done by economic historians in cataloguing the quantitative effects of the Hundred Years War - towns destroyed, machinery built, technologies developed, and so on. Some of these works have a very nationalistic slant and are best avoided. The two best overviews are Koremana, _Economic Consequences of the Hundred Years War_ (Ba Sing Se University Press) and Zhan and Zehar, _The Hundred Years War: A Quantitative Survey_ (Caldera Press). This working paper has a different purpose. In it, I delineate some of the intangible cultural losses of the Hundred Years War, such as the narrowing of the bending arts and the loss of texts. 

**The Air Nomads**

Let us deal with the elephant-rat in the room first. The greatest losses occurred to the Air Nomads. The wholesale destruction of their temples and the artifacts within them at the start of the war are well-known. Less well-known are the successive losses due to raiders, looters, and souvenir hunters, who intermittently ransacked the air temples for artifacts to sell on the black market. Shortly after the Hundred Years War ended, the Air temples were unilaterally listed by the Fire Nation and the rest of the world as protected sites.

Very few air nomad texts survived the genocide. This is doubly unfortunate, due to what we now know of their commentarial tradition. The air nomads passed down their philosophies through oral transmission, with the texts serving as an aid to memory. As such, the surviving texts we have now are brief and terse. With the loss of the Air Nomad masters, much of the necessary context is also missing.

There are three main sources for Air Nomad texts:

  * The works of Avatar Aang, for a time the last surviving Air nomad. When not busy with diplomatic or political matters, he spent his time on a massive seven-volume treatise on Air Nomad history and culture. He finished five books before his death and left partial drafts of the last two, later completed and published by his son Tenzin. This set is essential reading for all who are interested in Air Nomad culture, although there are gaps due to Avatar Aang's limited experience of Air Nomad life. For example, Avatar Aang never learned what was the 36th level of Airbending, although much scholarly speculation has centered on this. 
  * The Eastern Temple manuscripts. As the Air Acolytes moved into the Air temples under Avatar Aang's direction, a hidden room filled with manuscripts was found in the Eastern Air Temple. They fall into three types: philosophical, dealing with the six orthodox and three unorthodox schools of Air Nomad thought; practical, dealing with everyday aspects of Air Nomad life such as cooking and exercise; finally, administrative documents concerning the running of the temple. These manuscripts have proved to be an invaluable resource for research into Air Nomad culture. Fire Lord Zuko established the Air Nomad Manuscript Project in order to conserve and study these manuscripts. Complete copies of the manuscripts can now be found in Caldera University, Ba Sing Se University, and New Zaofu University. The originals are kept in the Eastern Air Temple and can only be seen with special permission.
  * The Fire Nation manuscripts. Fire Lord Sozin looted the Air Temples and kept many of their texts in his private collection. His grandson, Fire Lord Zuko, has since returned the manuscripts to the Air Temples. Copies of the manuscripts have been made available for research as part of the Air Nomad Manuscript project.



The journal _Air Nomad Studies_ is the main venue for research in this area. 

**The Water Tribes**

The Northern Water Tribe managed to avoid the worst of the Hundred Years War. Their capital, Agna Qel'a, remained almost completely unharmed until the Siege of the North by Admiral Zhao. The Southern Water Tribe suffered far more. Due to frequent raids, almost all the Southern waterbenders were captured, with the Southern style of waterbending having died out. Unfortunately, the loss seems permanent. The sole Southern master trained in the style, Hama, was declared insane after being recaptured by the Fire Nation shortly before the end of the Hundred Years War. She died in captivity soon after under suspicious consequences.

**The Earth Kingdom and The Fire Nation**

The culture of the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation narrowed in similar ways during the Hundred Years War. Shortly after the Air Nomad Genocide, Fire Lord Sozin decided to purge the members of his army who showed any sympathy to the Air Nomads, and learning from other bending disciplines was forbidden. Fire Nation textbooks were altered to state that fire was the superior element. Ironically, Fire Lord Sozin's signature technique of heat redirection was in fact based on the principles of waterbending. (Royal Fire Nation Archive and Library Manuscripts 58.107, _Sozin's Memoirs._ ) After his death, his technique was considered lost, and it was only due to archival research that it was later rediscovered and reused by Firebenders. 

The Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se became a police state during the Hundred Years War, limiting academic and bending freedom. The teaching of earthbending was highly restricted and regulated by the Dai Li, leading to the death of all other Earthbending styles within the city. (Notably, the greatest innovation in earthbending at that time - metalbending - came from Master Toph Beifong of Gaoling, who was only nominally trained by Master Yu, and who otherwise learned from the badgermoles.)

Both cultures thus experienced a narrowing of their bending cultures during the Hundred Years War due to self-imposed constraints. It was only with the end of the Hundred Years War that the bending culture in both nations returned to full vitality. A prominent example is how Fire Lord Zuko and Master Katara developed the Sun and Moon, a bending form designed to be useful to both firebenders and waterbenders. While Master Toph Beifong and Avatar Aang also discussed the possibility of a bending form for both earthbending and airbending, but this was eventually abandoned due to difficulties over footwork and lower body movement. Avatar Korra eventually created a complete form.

_Shichi Beifong, New Zaofu University_

**Author's Note:**

> The Sun and Moon comes from Overheard in Ba Sing Se by cloudymagnolia at https://archiveofourown.org/works/17121602.


End file.
